NFL execs arrive in Twin Cities with a warning: Without a stadium solution soon, Vikings could bolt

Gov. Mark Dayton, left, escorts Eric Grubman, center, the NFL's executive vice president of finance and strategic transactions, and Neil Glat, the NFL's senior vice president for stadium development, into his office Tuesday for a meeting about the Vikings stadium proposal. Dayton said he told them he's "cautiously optimistic" that a deal for a new stadium can be reached. (Pioneer Press: Richard Marshall)

If state lawmakers don't come up with money for a Vikings stadium, the team could leave Minnesota, a senior NFL executive suggested Tuesday.

A legislative impasse would allow outside interests to offer Vikings owner Zygi Wilf an alternative to Minnesota after the team's Metrodome lease expires Feb. 1, said Eric Grubman, the league's executive vice president of finance and strategic transactions.

Grubman did not mention the competing developers in Los Angeles who are accelerating stadium plans to lure an existing franchise to the country's second-largest city.

But he left little doubt, after meeting with Gov. Mark Dayton and lawmakers in St. Paul, that a special legislative session next month represents the state's best and perhaps last opportunity to solve the divisive issue and ensure the team's future in Minnesota, where the Vikings have played since 1961.

"If the moment is now, then let's take this moment. Let's seize the opportunity," Grubman said at a Capitol news conference.

"We're worried about a stalemate. A stalemate means there's no lease or the lease is about to expire. There's no plan for a stadium, and there's an alternative plan in another city. That's a stalemate. And the alternative wouldn't include Minnesota.

"That is, in the way we look at it, a crisis," he said.

The NFL has no interest in losing the Twin Cities, the country's 15th-largest media market.

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The Vikings are an anchor franchise in the Upper Midwest, selling out every game since 1998. They attract the fourth-highest television ratings in the league, according to Nielsen.

But Grubman said the league would not control events once the Vikings' lease expires. He acknowledged the possibility that the team could relocate if the proposal for a stadium in Arden Hills collapses.

"The probability does go up. I don't know what that probability is. Until it happens, no one does," Grubman said. "It's our job to make sure that doesn't happen - to make sure every possible step is taken to give the Vikings a great chance to succeed in this market.

"To me, if I'm a Minnesotan, any alternative is bad. So I don't want to speculate on Los Angeles or any other city. NFL franchises are highly sought after. If this can't get done and someone wants to create an alternative somewhere else, opening the door for that will happen if the process here yields a stalemate."

Grubman and Neil Glat, the NFL's senior vice president for stadium development, returned to New York on Tuesday night to deliver a political progress report to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the 16 owners on the league's stadium-finance committees.

The presence of Grubman and Glat in the Twin Cities underscored the growing urgency to resolve the Vikings stadium issue, which has lingered for a decade.

The league officials sat down with Dayton for 30 minutes after meeting with House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch on Monday.

Dayton said he told the NFL officials that he's "cautiously optimistic" a deal can be done. He said Goodell has made it clear "the time is imminent" and that the NFL executives were seeking assurance that progress is being made and an end point is in sight.

"One way or the other, they want an answer," Dayton said.

Referring to some Twitter posts criticizing his leadership on the issue, Dayton said lawmakers must take this opportunity to work for a stadium solution and not "play the blame game."

Dayton wants to convene a three-day special legislative session Nov. 21, but it remains unclear whether stadium proponents have the votes to pass a bill that would authorize the state's $300 million contribution to the Arden Hills stadium. The Vikings have pledged more than $420 million to that plan, and it calls for Ramsey County to provide $350 million through a 0.5 percent sales tax.

Grubman said the Vikings would be eligible for up to $150 million in financing through NFL subsidies, which the 32 teams provide from their shared revenue pools.

Meanwhile, the lead stadium negotiator in the House said Tuesday that he expects a bill will be drafted and ready for public inspection by early November.

State Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, said he expects informational hearings will be held before a special session.

"So obviously, the next two to three weeks will be a critical time to finalize a proposal and then take the next couple of weeks to have that proposal aired and heard prior to a special session being called," Lanning said.

"I would expect at some point in the next two to three weeks there would be an announcement or news conference; we'd lay all that out and then give people the opportunity to weigh in on it."

Lanning said he, state Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, and Dayton, a Democrat, will drive the process in coming weeks. The majority and minority leaders in each chamber are hanging back at the moment, he said, but "obviously at some point they're going to have to be engaged."

The stadium bill drafted during the last legislative session is being used as a starting place, Lanning said, but because the state's budget deal was wrapped up in July, the parties have been meeting to revise that bill.

Among the biggest unresolved questions is determining how to finance the state's contribution.

Lanning said the financing proposals in the initial bill - including a tax on sports memorabilia, a sports-themed lottery game and sales taxes on stadium suites and direct satellite services - "are still options on the table."

"But," he said, "so are other options being considered."

It's the financing piece that will be critical to getting a majority of legislators to support the plan, Lanning said.

Even though Dayton said Monday that he will no longer require assurance that a bill will pass before calling a special session, "I think it would be bad for all concerned to call a special session and to have the proposal fail," Lanning said.

Dayton plans to meet separately today with Wilf and his partners and with Ramsey County officials still hoping the project will be built on the former Army munitions site in Arden Hills.

He also will meet with backers of a plan to open a downtown Minneapolis casino. Some tax proceeds from that casino could be funneled to stadium construction.

Meanwhile, Anschutz Entertainment Group is vowing to break ground in downtown Los Angeles in June, with plans to open Farmer's Field in 2016. Real estate magnate Ed Roski reportedly offered 600 acres to any NFL owner who wants to develop a stadium on his property in the Los Angeles suburb of Industry in exchange for a franchise share at market value.

A team would have the option of playing at the Coliseum or Rose Bowl in Pasadena during construction of a Los Angeles stadium.

The NFL has wanted a franchise in Los Angeles since the Rams and Raiders left the city in 1995, but Grubman said the problem has been that "we couldn't find a site; we couldn't find the financing; and we couldn't find the enabling legislation to get through the various roadblocks."

Now, he said, the AEG and Roski sites, both privately financed, are viable after clearing key legislative and environmental hurdles.

"So the missing element is now a franchise," Grubman said.

Grubman said he respects the argument some Minnesotans make that the state cannot afford to help pay for a professional football stadium. The NFL executive and former Goldman Sachs investment banker answered in terms of civic identity.

"People are attracted to cities not for the traffic jams. They're attracted for the arts, the performing arts, museums. They're attracted for sports franchises," Grubman said. "You have to decide what puts your city on the map, your state on the map in the way you want it to be on the map.

"That decision is for Minnesotans. It's not for us. We respect the choices that legislators and citizens have to make. And we hope that choice includes the Vikings here."